Multinational Organizations Role in Human Rights

I witnessed a heated discussion over the human rights and one of the discussion points was around the question “Should multinational organizations work in countries that are accused of human rights violations?”

Multinational organizations may work in countries that are accused of human rights violation. The organization should not intentionally violate human rights or encourage it. However, the organization should help the local community by paying them a fair wage to the amount of work done by the labor. Lam (2009) surveyed Chinese executives working for American multinational organizations in China and the executives felt that “Corporate Social Program” are human resources department job. The Chinese executives did not see their ethical responsibility or feel the obligation toward the society because their functional strategies did not incorporate social responsibilities (Lam, 2009). Multinational organizations, similar to domestic  organizations, are influenced by three conflicting needs, the organization, the industry and the society (Labbai, 2007). The ethical conflict between personal ethics and the organization would have strong effect on the organization operations in the international market (Labbai, 2007). The executives’ and the line managers’ ethical responsibilities would be the deciding factor for the multinational organization to behave ethically in countries that violate human rights.
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References:

Labbai, M. (2007). Social Responsibility and Ethics in Marketing. Paper presented at the International Marketing Conference on Marketing & Society, 8-10 April, 2007, IIMK.

Lam, M. (2009). Beyond Credibility of Doing Business in China: Strategies for Improving Corporate Citizenship of Foreign Multinational Enterprises in China. [Article]. Journal of Business Ethics, 87, 137-146. doi: 10.1007/s10551-008-9803-3